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I can't believe some people are suggesting Zherdev. Like do you think before you post? We're finally close to purging the locker room of lazy entitled pouting losers, and you want to bring in a guy who makes Patrick O'Sullivan look like Patrice Bergeron? Give me a break. We need to be jettisoning the Hemskys and the Omarks, not bringing more in.

Really depends, sometimes the difference between the #6 forward on the team and the #7 is very minimal. If the Oilers were going to try 3 scoring lines I'm sure it would be very close in time.

Sure, if we are talking about the difference between a healthy Hemsky and Perron but we're talking about Omark vs. Perron where the difference is much greater.
Also, one of the biggest issues with the Oilers over the last several years has been lack of chemistry and the inability to put together lines that can play well off each other.
If you put Omark or some grinder in the top 6 and move Perron down to the 3rd line with the hope of creating 3 scoring lines, you create a bunch of mismatched lines and chances are that there would be just 1 scoring line.

The reason for the Perron trade was to fill the #2LW void. Paajarvi was a tweener who was more likely a 3rd liner at this point in his career while Perron is a clear top 6 guy who will likely excel with other skilled players so that's why the deal was made. You bump him down to the Gordon line and that defeats the purpose of bringing him here in the first place.

A 3rd line of Zherdev-Gordon-Hemsky would be playing against other teams 3rd and 4th line and would pick them apart. Hemsky would dismantle 3rd pairings along with Zherdev. They don't have to worry about playing against other teams top lines because that is what RNH's line will be doing. It happened all last year.

On the surface this logic makes sense, but doesn't the other team have some say in which lines are on the ice when the theoretical Hemsky/Zherdev line is out there?

Carolina only has 11 signed NHL forwards listed on Capgeek (including Jared Staal who's a borderline NHL player at best)... so unless they are going to go with even more AHL talent to fill out their roster, I'd expect several UFA players to probably show up at their camp for tryouts.

They also only have 19 players signed overall (again according to Capgeek) so I expect them to add a dman as well.

Obviously there will be some minor trades and some waiver pickups as some teams have too few and others have too many bodies (Anaheim is listed as having 26... Detroit 25).

Carolina only has 11 signed NHL forwards listed on Capgeek (including Jared Staal who's a borderline NHL player at best)... so unless they are going to go with even more AHL talent to fill out their roster, I'd expect several UFA players to probably show up at their camp for tryouts.

They also only have 19 players signed overall (again according to Capgeek) so I expect them to add a dman as well.

Obviously there will be some minor trades and some waiver pickups as some teams have too few and others have too many bodies (Anaheim is listed as having 26... Detroit 25).

Bobby Mac saying Pitkanen won't be ready and that it's the same injury that ended someone's career awhile back, could be pretty bad news.

I don't think CAR will be too worried about numbers though. Will give kids a shot and then as the Isles showed us they have the waiver wire.

On the surface this logic makes sense, but doesn't the other team have some say in which lines are on the ice when the theoretical Hemsky/Zherdev line is out there?

Certainly, but no matter how you look at it, we would have a line with supreme skill playing against their worst pairing no matter what. Whether it be Hall/Gagner/Yakupov, Perron/RNH/Eberle, or Zherdev-Gordon-Hemsky, one of those lines will be playing against some poor defenders and would be almost certain to generate some scoring opportunities.

People seem to think Hemsky is some awful defensive liability, that is simply not the case. Our biggest problem last year and years prior is that we almost never have any decent puck moving D, and get hemmed in our own zone. Ference will improve that aspect and we should have at least one great puck mover on each pairing this season. If Hemsky gets the puck skating out of the zone, it's very likely he skates into into the other end for an opportunity or at least cycles it long enough to get a line change. Wingers don't have a lot of responsibility regardless in their own zone, it's mostly up to the defenceman and centre to chip the puck out or feed a winger. With an elite defensive center in Gordon and some actual puck moving defenceman, a line of Zherdev-Gordon-Hemsky would be able to break out easily enough and are talented enough to at least spend the majority of time in the offensive zone, and that is all that is required out of a "shut down" line.

Obviously Zherdev is just one example of a player we could get, and a lot of people are against him due to his past. I've just been using him as an example but really any other skilled LW on that line would make it dynamic. Even a defensive liability isn't such a big deal to put on that line as long as he has enough skill to create plays with Hemsky or by himself. Latendresse if healthy would have been a great fit.

Got to think MacT has a few more moves planned before camp despite what he says. I still think Hemsky and Schultz are moved before start of camp. What for whos to say, would be sweet to see a deal like Hemsky(Half Cap Hit/Salary retained) and Dubnyk for Ward, most likely he goes to Buffalo though for Stafford IMO.

Got to think MacT has a few more moves planned before camp despite what he says. I still think Hemsky and Schultz are moved before start of camp. What for whos to say, would be sweet to see a deal like Hemsky(Half Cap Hit/Salary retained) and Dubnyk for Ward, most likely he goes to Buffalo though for Stafford IMO.

Are you serious? Why would Carolina trade Ward? He's everything to that team, their season tanked immediately following his injury.
They most certainly aren't trading him for Stafford.

Are you serious? Why would Carolina trade Ward? He's everything to that team, their season tanked immediately following his injury.
They most certainly aren't trading him for Stafford.

I meant Hemsky for Stafford not Ward. And like I said dont think they'd do it but Carolina could use the extra cap space to sign a few more forwards. I don't see Dubnyk getting more then 4M on his next contract, so they'd have 2.3M extra to sign a forward or d man. This year the extra forward would be Hemsky since he'd only be costing them 2.5M to bring in with the Oilers retaining half salary and cap hit.

I'd take Ward over Dubnyk... but not at Ward's $6.3 million cap hit for the next 3 years.

Ward isn't that much better that I'd want to tie up that much money in him as the starter. Personally I would have liked MacT to have added a back up that could push Dubnyk in a 1A-1B situation... obviously he was trying to do that but struck out on several fronts so he ended up going with the vet career backup option.

I'd take Ward over Dubnyk... but not at Ward's $6.3 million cap hit for the next 3 years.

Ward isn't that much better that I'd want to tie up that much money in him as the starter. Personally I would have liked MacT to have added a back up that could push Dubnyk in a 1A-1B situation... obviously he was trying to do that but struck out on several fronts so he ended up going with the vet career backup option.

Yea for me its worth the upgrade. Its really a personal preference thing, Im just not a big fan of Dubnyk but can see why some people are.

Hainsey simply isn't that great. If I had to choose between him and Nick Schultz... I'd just keep Schultz the elder on the Oilers. The difference adding Hainsey would make over the group of 9 dmen the Oilers already have signed (10 if Klefbom is indeed ready) would be very minimal at best.

Hainsey was on $4.5 million which was a huge overpay... but even if he came down drastically from that I'd still say adding him would be superfluous to what they already have.

MacT should be targeting a solid 2-way bottom 6 winger/centre... not yet another dman.

I can't believe some people are suggesting Zherdev. Like do you think before you post? We're finally close to purging the locker room of lazy entitled pouting losers, and you want to bring in a guy who makes Patrick O'Sullivan look like Patrice Bergeron? Give me a break. We need to be jettisoning the Hemskys and the Omarks, not bringing more in.

So we are now lumping Hemsky in with "pouting losers"?

For a guy that has played himself into the ground going to the hard places and essentially carried what little offence this team has had, I hardly think that term applies. Regardless of whether he still has a place here (which I think he does but can understand the other side), he's hardly trash and can still contribute to a hockey team.

Once again, we've got people deciding they know more about what's going on in the locker room than the actual members of the team. Uneducated nonsense.

If the Oilers wanted to INVITE Zherdev to training camp, then I'd be kind of on board. Considering many KHL teams have released him now though, I am less likely to bother on that then I was a month ago or so.

I'm hoping EDM invites some guys to TC though. Carolina, Phoenix, and others are already jumping in on that.